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Return fired eight to work, Steel pleads

The president of United Steelworkers Local 6500 is calling on Vale Ltd. to give eight workers fired during the union's bitter year-long strike against the nickel company their jobs back, after a court ruling Monday.

Rick Bertrand said the Brazilbased nickel giant should "forget about going to the labour board and bring them back."

Bertrand stood on the steps of the Sudbury Courthouse after Ontario Court Justice William Fitzgerald found three members of Local 6500, who are among the dismissed, not guilty of criminal harassment charges laid more than a year ago.

Local 6500 vice-president Patrick Veinot, treasurer Jason Patterson and member Mike French were all found not guilty on the harassment charge.

French was found guilty of a single count of assault laid after a confrontation with a Steelworker who had crossed the picket line to work for Vale during the strike.

Bertrand said Vale has accused the men of being involved in a "three on one" attack on Todd Chretien on Jan. 19, 2010, and that was being used to justify their dismissals.

United Steelworkers is currently two days into a planned six-day hearing into a bad-faith bargaining complaint it filed against Vale a year ago with the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

Vale has insisted it has the right to fire employees whom the company deems have violated its code of conduct, on or off the picket line.

The union is asking the labour board to rule the case be decided by an arbitrator.

Nine Steelworkers were fired during the strike for alleged misbehaviour on picket lines and in the community. One accepted a retirement package, so the bad-faith bargaining complaint now deals with eight dismissals.

A shaken Patterson said his mother and spouse had been through a great deal in the year since the charges were laid and would not comment on the verdict.

Toronto lawyer Frank Addario defended the Steelworkers on the criminal harassment charges and French on the assault charge.

Said Addario: "I have seen charges like this, I've defended many people in picket line situations. I've never seen a criminal harassment charge laid on such flimsy evidence connecting defendants to acts of vandalism."

The Ontario Labour Relations Board hearing is set to resume in Toronto on Feb. 16 and 17, and Feb. 24 and 25. Two more dates have been scheduled for June.